Crippled From the Soul Down
by The Ingenue's Shadow
Summary: Back in Edoras, Eowyn took in a little girl. Destined to become a sickening Mary-Sue, the girl ended up on the Darth Vadar track instead. This is the story of the downfall of Aragorn IIs kingdom and everyones struggle to regain power over Eowyns murderess
1. Default Chapter

Author's Note: I'm re-casting this story, so if you read it, please read it all the way through. I've worked so hard on this one and it means a lot to me if you review.  
  
[Once upon a time, there was someone with nothing to lose.]  
  
The bet was simple.  
  
Seven boys taunted their victim with it, a girl their age with a crippled arm. She set her brown eyes, which now held so much fire, upon each of them in turn as they circled her. Her fists clenched into knots, but the boys continued to whisper at her, "So can you?"  
  
"Of course I can!" she spat back, knowing it was not true. Then prove it, they said. She walked up to one of them and pulled back her right arm, the one that did not work. They fell silent.  
  
They were all watching to see if she could do it, if she could throw a punch with her right am, the one that she normally kept at her side as if that would make it invisible. The alleyway was dim and shadowed; with any light it had fading fast. The ambiance was that of a funeral that the group of children had broken into without being asked. All Kaderayna had wanted was to play with them! But it was not so easy. They bet her that she couldn't decently hit someone with her right arm, and she knew in the first place that she couldn't. Her sister Éowyn had been teaching her various forms of weaponry; the sword, the knife, mainly. She had been learning the bow until her arm . . .  
  
The same thing had happened yesterday. The same bet, the same base line. It had been scarier for Kaderayna then, however. She had felt much smaller and much more vulnerable. Luckily, her godfather, Aragorn II, had stepped in and stopped the boys from making fun of her. She had been very thankful as he told off the boys she had tried to make friends with and scooped her into his arms. Being the goddaughter to the King of Gondor was worth something, after all. But it didn't look like Aragorn was going to show up today.  
  
"Go, already!" someone shouted. Kaderayna took a deep breath and concentrated on making her arm fly towards the boy's face. The weight of the action made her not only miss the boy completely, but topple to the ground in a hasty spin. Her tangle of dirty blonde hair came down over her shoulders and face, looking very much like some sort of grotesque hat.  
  
The boys laughed. Kaderayna felt ready to cry. Now for the rest of the bet . . . Kaderayna wished that she hadn't left the house today, she wished that she had stayed with her sister in the kitchen . . . one of the boys reached into his oversized coat . . . Kaderayna pulled her hair out of her face. Maybe her sister would come now and chase away the boys she had wanted to be friends with . . . without further ado, a full wine bottle was handed to Kaderayna. Each of the boys had a nasty, evil sort of grin on his face. "For you," one said.  
  
~ ten years later ~  
  
"Give me another one."  
  
The bar was musty, as if hadn't been cleaned in a few decades and the dim lights were feeble attempts to hide all of the grime. Kaderayna Santavaj sat in the middle of it all, sloppily slouched over a bar stool and surrounded by empty wine glasses, a few of them broken.  
  
"Kad, you've had too many. How about you go home for the night, get some sleep?"  
  
Kaderayna did her best to look menacingly at the bartender. "I said, give me another one."  
  
The bartender sighed and poured another glass of wine for Kaderayna. She downed it and held out her hand for another.  
  
"Sorry, honey, but this is where I put my foot down. You've had too much to drink tonight."  
  
"Fool! I'm gonna punch your bloody face in!" she drunkenly yelled, reaching for the wine jug. Several of the empty glasses got knocked onto the floor where they shattered. The bartender didn't stop her, but he didn't help her any either. She sat back down on the stool with her prize, then glared up at the bartender.  
  
"I'm not staying in this place," she slurred, and stumbled off the bar stool. "Can't get a person decently drunk," she said, tripping out into the pouring rain.  
  
Outside, Kaderayna wandered into the shelter of an alley and paced in zigzags that come from too much alcohol. Every swig of the cheap wine drowned her in blissful ignorance. She was sinking fast.  
  
A creep looking for easy rape grabbed her shoulder. She didn't see his face, know who he was, or even care. She didn't bother. He could have been anyone, even her sister, but Kaderayna pulled out her knife and slit his throat, just like that. No questions, no answers, no explanations. Kaderayna didn't want any of those.  
  
She kicked aside his body and continued to pace. She ran into a wall, a window, a horse. Finally Kaderayna took her last gulp of the sweet forgetfulness and sprawled out in a puddle. The rain continued to rage, but she didn't hear it, or feel it for that matter. She didn't want to.  
  
The next morning a friend of her sister's found her, still in the puddle, amazed she didn't drown. He had been running an errand to get more flour for the bakery he owned and had tripped over her, then recognized her face.  
  
It was that of a skeleton's, as was the rest of her, with unkempt dirty blond hair sticking to her cheeks with rain from the previous night. Her dress was fashionable, but wet and muddy. The baker sighed. Éowyn would not be pleased.  
  
END AUTHOR'S NOTE: If you read this far, then I have to ask you two favors. The first is that you review, and tell me your thoughts on my story, in particular what I could do to make it better. The second is that you come back to this story. Thank you for reading. 


	2. Of Luck and Wine

"Well, what do you expect me to do?" Éowyn shouted at her younger sister.  
  
"I'm twenty years old. I can take care of myself!" Kaderayna shot back.  
  
"Then why do you keep coming back here? You need money, you need clothes, you need food, or you need more money. To get drunk on!"  
  
Kaderayna glowered at the corner.  
  
"I'm sending you away. I cannot deal with you and neither Faramir nor I want to try anymore. You're absolutely hopeless. Pack your bags; you're going to stay at the palace with your godfather."  
  
Kaderayna's godfather; how she hated the man. She was the only one, too, for he was "the great Elessar," king and savoir of Minas Tirith.  
  
King and savior Kaderayna's ass. He had always treated her so dreadfully sweet, so sickeningly kind. They got along at one time, but Kaderayna was older now, and he would still treat her like a little kid, whom he "saved" once upon a time. It hadn't really worked; anyway, she still couldn't lift more than a piece of paper in her right hand because of the immense weight it brought upon her arm.  
  
But Kaderayna knew better than to argue with her sister when she was in this state. She went upstairs to pack. She didn't need much, just clothes for a few days. Kaderayna knew that she'd be going someplace else after a few days; that was the way it always worked when Éowyn couldn't deal with her. She'd get shuttled around from place to place but never staying in one spot for too long because the people there didn't want her there.  
  
Once at the palace, Kaderayna ditched her belongings in her temporary chambers and went to the courtyard. There she tried to focus on her knife work, but the task was hopeless. Within minutes she was vomiting into a bush near the wall.  
  
"It is good to see you, Kaderayna," Elessar called from across the courtyard. He used to call her "Kad," as did most people, but no one really knew her anymore. They felt uncomfortable calling her something so informal. "How long will you be staying?"  
  
"Éowyn would want me to tell you that you are permitted to kick me out whenever you wish. I assume you'll be doing just that around noon on Sunday."  
  
"Kick you out?" Elessar laughed. "Nonsense. You are free to stay as long as you wish. Her only request was that you remain inside the palace walls."  
  
"What's stopping me from leaving?" Kaderayna asked curtly.  
  
Elessar sighed, "What happened to you, Kaderayna? Before you became like this, you were a sweet little girl with a crooked smile and a sling over her shoulder. I miss that girl so much; she saved me from myself."  
  
She wanted to tell him everything. How having a crippled right arm and knowing how to fight had made her an outcast from the other children. How she secluded herself with mugs of beer and bottles of wine until she couldn't feel the pain at all even though it throbbed through her head in the abandoned form of nostalgia.  
  
No one thought that she remembered that long ago, but she did. She remembered the night that Elessar had held her in his lap and tried to protect her from the heavy blows of a now dead man. She had called him Aragorn then, and she had pretended that he was her father whom she loved dearly and he her.  
  
"Your highness," she said mockingly, "I don't want to be here. I don't want to be with you. And the last thing I want to be is a helpless little girl again, so find yourself another one."  
  
Then she left. She didn't hear Elessar sigh, nor did she want to think about it. She was out of money, but her knife might get her what she needed. She saw a servant dusting in the sunroom.  
  
Kaderayna pushed the servant into a corner and pulled out her knife. Terrified, the servant begged for her life. Kaderayna demanded to know where Elessar kept his wine; the servant girl shakily pointed a finger towards a staircase, saying it led to a wine cellar.  
  
"If you tell anyone at all that I asked you this, I'll slit your throat," she threatened, then slunk away to the wine cellar as the servant girl collapsed in a dead faint. Funny, how no one could ever figure out why they found her on the floor like that that one afternoon.  
  
Far too eagerly Kaderayna ran down the stairs. Deprived of alcohol for less than twelve hours, she was desperate. The wine cellar was amazing. Rows and rows of top notch wine, even beer barrels. And, in one small cabinet, there were all sorts of liquor that Kaderayna had never seen in her life. She tried those first.  
  
The first one she grabbed was a cider-colored liquid, and burned as it slid down Kaderayna's throat. 'Dizzy after one sip,' she thought, delighted. In twenty minutes the top shelf of the cabinet was consumed, and the empty jars to prove it lay strewn across the floor. Kaderayna finally got what she had wanted, the blissful state of unconsciousness. Her last thoughts were about how foolish Éowyn was to send her there. Then she passed out.  
  
~  
  
Elessar missed her at dinner, and since she was no where to be found, contacted Éowyn. The next day Éowyn's message arrived: "She is any place that can get her drunk," was all the letter said, and so he promptly had a servant check the wine cellar. He prayed to the Valar that the she didn't find Kaderayna down there, but it went unanswered.  
  
"Your Majesty, your guest from Ithilien is down there."  
  
Elessar sighed. Again. "Did she say anything to you?"  
  
"I believe, your Majesty, that she is quite dead." The servant chose these words hesitantly and immediately excused herself.  
  
Elessar ran down the stairs. He didn't want to believe what the servant had just told him, and he thought that maybe she was mistaken, but all the same Kaderayna must have been in somewhat poor condition for the servant to have said such a thing.  
  
In the last row of wines Elessar found Kaderayna. She was face down on the floor, surrounded by empty bottles of specialty liquor. Stone drunk. Elessar couldn't believe it.  
  
He turned her onto her back. Holding his hand over her mouth, he could tell that she wasn't breathing. How long had she been lying there? He called for servants to bring her upstairs into her chambers, meanwhile doing his very best to stay away from her; she reeked of alcohol, a scent Elessar was not particularly fond of.  
  
~  
  
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Dork! Sigh, oh well . . . it's being re-casted. I'll post new chapters if I see reviews for them. So yeah. 


	3. Greed's Mafia

AUTHOR'S NOTE: thank you to my reviewers. Remember, all I want to keep going is the knowledge that someone wants the next chapter. So when I get a review for this, I'll post it.  
  
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How Kaderayna pulled through was a mystery to everyone, including herself. She really didn't care, though, as usual. After a killer hangover, she went back. She knew that soon the liquor would be guarded, so she figured that she had better stock up on what they had before it wasn't there anymore.  
  
She entered the wine cellar through a tiny window at the top, shimmying through it to land on the dank floor amongst the rows of wine. There she dusted herself off and made for the cupboard she had found the previous day. Kaderayna emptied the remaining contents into her skirt and carried them back to the window, jumping up to set them on the soft grass above. Once she was done, she closed the window.  
  
'May as well take one for the road,' Kaderayna thought. So she sat down and helped herself to some beer, using one of the jars she'd emptied the night before. Then she helped herself to another one. And one more. Deciding she'd better stop there, Kaderayna grabbed a wine bottle and dragged herself up the staircase.  
  
As she thought, a guard was stationed at the top of the stairs. "How did you get in?" he growled, roughly grabbing the wine from her hands.  
  
Kaderayna stumbled off. "Too easy," she thought. She retrieved the stolen liquor that she had put by the window and then went upstairs to her chambers. She dumped all but the smallest flask into her travel bag and pulled out her knife. After one swig of the strong brandy, Kaderayna went to find the bitch whom she thought had told Elessar that she was in the wine cellar. She was in one of her rages, her mind buzzed with anticipation and anger as she made her uneasy way through the corridors.  
  
By the time Kaderayna got to the parlor, however, she was so drunk that she kept walking into doorways. It was thundering outside. 'Perfect night for a murder,' Kaderayna thought romantically. In the average person's mind there is nothing romantic about a murder, but were average sober, Kaderayna would be behaving rightfully.  
  
"My lady," a new servant girl asked. She was only about ten years old, with jet black hair and a round-ish figure. "His Majesty is looking for you."  
  
"Tell 'his Majesty' to fall on his sword!" Kaderayna yelled, punching the girl in the stomach. Hard.  
  
"Hey, what're you doing?" a guard shouted from across the room as the little girl got up and ran away in pain and terror. Soon a three more guards were on her; one held her, one took her knife and one took her flask.  
  
"Get off me, you bastards!" she slurred, but her drunkenness made it nearly impossible to get away.  
  
They got off. "Come with us. Your temper will be judged by the king." Two guards each took one of Kaderayna's arms, but she wasn't finished.  
  
"Curse you, you bloody mongrels! Your king deserves to be fed to the dogs! I hope he dies a horrible, slow death, and I hope all of you do, too!" Finally they got sick of her. They brought her to the gates of the palace and threw her out into the mud.  
  
Wincing from the pain in her right arm from struggling so much, Kaderayna felt for not the first time in her life terribly helpless. She was hurt (but mostly because she thought she was), weaponless and drunk. Then someone came up from behind her and helped her up. Startled, Kaderayna spun around to face them, instinctively reaching for her non-existent dagger.  
  
"The left-handed girl," the stranger mocked. His black eyes made Kaderayna suspicious of him; she found that she could not focus on anything else once she had looked into them.  
  
"Who are you? What do you want?" Kaderayna demanded.  
  
"I have heard of you." Kaderayna didn't believe him. She was unknown, or so she hoped. "My name is Falquir; I needed help and your friend Daeron said you would be perfect."  
  
"Perfect for what?" Kaderayna said suspiciously. Bloody Daeron, he never could keep his mouth shut.  
  
Daeron was a drunk just like Kaderayna. He had had the opportunity to have a respectable position but had gotten bored and thrown it all away for a mug of beer. She'd met him in a pub one night in the summer back in Ithilien; they'd been drunk enough to share their life stories with one another. Kaderayna was amazed that she actually remembered that conversation, but she didn't remember the rest of the night at all so maybe that made up for it. She would rather remember the conversation anyway. Nights she couldn't remember always turned out badly.  
  
"Power, Santavaj, power. I'm creating a new government, a new monarchy. You can rule it with me if you will help me. I need to know what goes on inside those doors, how the wheels of the palace turn. That knowledge will be enough for me to overthrow the king."  
  
Overthrow the king! Throw Elessar into the streets! Falquir, no matter how shady a character, had captured Kaderayna's attention. In the moment he said those words, she was in. 


End file.
